Originally Posted by beachlady
Oh Terri, the middle of our nation is nice too. I grew up in western upstate New York and went to college in South Dakota and loved it out there. Met husband in SD and since he was a Preacher's kid he wanted to move far away, so we moved back east. First Florida for master's degree - hated it there and then to the Washington DC area until his death in 1987. I moved to Maine in 1992 and just love it here, (Spent all my summers growing up on this beach in Maine!!!)
Upstate NY around Lake Champlain is a beautiful area too. Maine is one of the worse taxed states in the nation and also one of the poorest. Go figure!! When my Dad was alive, NY had good tax laws for retired people - don't know if they still do or not.
We would like to get a second home out west in a drier and warmer winter climate. Maine would be our summer retreat.
We are starting to look at homes on the lakes around here - I still want to be near water and the real estate taxes on the ocean are outta sight. With home prices low right now, we figure we better do something now. Ocean property is still up there if someone wants to live or vacation here they will pay the price.
Too bad you can not look at property in NY now - houses are very reasonable in NY.
As for lobster.....hmmmm.......we usually only have it a couple times a year, but I do enjoy it. Right now it is cheaper than steak or sliced deli turkey!
I found some land in Upstate NY, but it's hard to get there to look at it. Oh well...I'm sure it will still be there or other pieces will be up for sale when we get back in the area.
One good thing....most states don't tax military retirement pay. We have been looking in those states, but it all depends on if hubby wants to do another career when he gets out. No clue what he wants to do. He loves to teach kids. I have been trying to get him to check out Troops to Teachers.
He just flip flops about what he wants to do.